Dolphin Tales

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world (Archimedes). The key ingredient here in the statement is the lever. Both of the swimmers below used their intentions as the lever and that intention was NOT TODAY WILDTHING. Two great swims by two Dolphins on Saturday stand out and I hope you Dolphins did not miss them. The first was turned in by Tate Ward in the 50 breast where losing at the wall he reached down deep and decided that he was not going to be beat this day. He overtook his opponent on the 2nd 25 out touching him at the wall with a great finish. On the girls side the 15-18 relay had a tough one going back and forth. Finding herself behind Elena Summers made up her mind that she was going to catch and pass this wild thing before it was over.Give it a try and get out of your way and watch your progress.

Saturday the Dolphins finally were able to swim in their own pool after two weeks on the road. It was nice to be able to be back in our own team area and be in familiar surroundings. We knew this was going to be a very tough meet and one that was going to be hard to win. When putting our meet sheet together the coaches made a decision to get out in front and stay there as long as we could in the order to keep your spirits up. you all responded by winning 8 out of ten freestyle races taking a 54 to 36 advantage over the wild things.
Our backstrokers responded by winning 5 of the 10 events and kept the Dolphins out front with a score of 95-85. The depth that the wild things had began to show as we entered the breast stroke and fly events. Throughout those events the Dolphins would only manage to win 3 of the 20 events. The dolphins had some amazing swims during the breast and fly events turing in 35 personal best, 12 times within.3 of their best. This was a great effort by all of our Dolphins.
It seems like our depth always rears its head during the breaststroke events and a little in the fly. As a coach I really believe that a contributing factor in this is the division we are swimming in. The upper divisions have a majority of their teams swimming seriously in the winter and this helps an awful lot, especially when learning to swim breast and fly. Six weeks is a very short time to cover everything that is needed in this sport, and that is why I was against the 8 and under fly being added to the meets. Okay time to get off the soap box.
First place winners from Saturday on the boys side were Ryan Southern, Justin Britton (double) Calvin Marr (double), Ian Fry, Michael Lusick, Adam and Matthew Janicki. On the girls side the Dolphins who won their races were Reagan Cervenak, Sophia Cloutier (double), Meghan Ice, Laura Wargo, and Elena Summers (double). Great races you all!!!
Although the Dolphins came out on the short end of the score, we had a lot of great swims throughout the meet. We had 65 dolphins turning in personal best times and another 27 swimmers who were within .4 or less of their best times which is much better than the week before. That is 92 out of 120 swims that were pretty good. Nice job to all our Dolphins!
The entire team was great at practice on Friday and the cheering that continued into the meet on Saturday was awesome. Seniors you did an awesome job and 12 and unders you were great also.
The final wrap on the meet was yes we lost and now lets move on knowing that we swam a great meet with a lot of best times and showing s lot of support for each other.
Thanks to all the parents for you continued support and the sacrifices you make getting your swimmers to where they are suppose to be. On another note I was aked by a parent why we don't do a organize practice on Friday..The reason is that I think it is important for the entire team to come together and actually hang out other than at a meet. This is were lasting friendships and memories are made. Most swimmers only swim 3 to 4 times a week in the winter and do quite well, and we believe we get more out of the Friday now than we would with an organized ptracvtice.

Monday, July 4, 2016

WEEK OF PRACTICE: After a late night meet with High Point we arrived early on Tuesday morning to begin our preparations for the Frogs from Fairfax. We started off Tuesday with a lot of kicking and followed with some quality 50's and some easy stretch out 100's. Of course my day started with Coach Sydney stomping across the deck informing me she is never going back to SHRA to swim. I guess it was a rough morning over there, only problem is that now I am stuck with her as she gets ready for her senior year at the Hood.

Working together getting ready for the frogs

BODY POSITION

We would follow Tuesday with 2 good days of practice on Wednesday and Thursday followed by a movie upstairs in the afternoon for the 12 and unders. The 13 and overs would watch the classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off in the evening upstairs in the clubhouse. Yes Isaac that is my bowl of ice cream and yes I will finish it.
On Friday we would have our team picture taken and than proceed to a giant raft party. Here are some images.

Saturday arrived and again the DOLPHINS would travel west to face the frogs from Fairfax. Again the 8 and unders would start the meet off by winning the first event. This week it was Ryan Southern who would attempt to wake up the dolphins. The Dolphins would win 5 of the 10 free style events to take a 46-44 lead into backstroke.

The Dolphins would only win 3 events in the backstroke but managed to find themselves trailing by only 8 (86-94). We tried to hang in as long as we could, but our fear began to appear as the frogs started to leap frog pass the Dolphins during the breast stroke events outscoring us 56-34, for a 150-120 point advantage heading into the fly events. Again we only managed to win 3 of the 10 breast stroke events. Now the question was could we close any ground during the fly events. The fear we had was NO. The frogs just had to much depth this day. Unfortunately I knew this as we entered the meet, as a lot of those darn little frogs swim in my groups over at GMU. The Dolphins would only win 2 fly events and fell further behind 162 to 198.

Going into the relays the Dolphins would need to win 10 of the 12 relays wich was a very longggggggg reach. At the end even after a spirited attempt we found our selves swimming around in our pod watching the frogs basking on their lilly pads.
Winning both their races this week were Elena Summers and Sophia Cloutier. Other event winners were Ryan Southern, Justin Britton, Matthew Janicki, Jackson McDonnell, Emmy Retinger, Madeline Ice and Catherine Lusick.
We had a sweep in the 11-12 girls of Chaterine Lusick, Nicole Farrace, Isabel Church.

On Saturday June 25 the Dolphins headed west on Lee Highway for the first meet of the season with Vienna Woods, a team that we last faced in 2014. This meet was going to be an emotional one as it was going to be the last time Miller Surette would be wearing the green/blue and white in a competitive meet.
After getting in a good warm-up the Dolphins were ready to test the water, but of course we had to add a bit of water from our home pool before we started to race. Our 8 and unders would set the mark high with Ryan Latessa winning the first race of the year in free as they would come out even at 9-9. This would be a sign of how this meet would go as many races were highly contested all the way to the finish.
The following Dolphins finished first in both of their individual events; Justin Britton, Ryan Southern, Adam Janicki, Lauren Armstrong, and Emmy Retinger. They accounted for 60 points with those finishes! Way to go DOLPHINS! Other first place finishes Ryan Latessa, Ian Fry, Matthew Janicki, Jack McDonnell, Calvin Marr, Michael Lusick, Josie Wallinger, Elena Summers, Sophia Cloutier and Madeline Ice. They would account for another 50 points for the dolphins.
After the free events the score was 45-45. During the backstroke events the Dolphins would have 2 sweeps 8 and under girls Lauren Armstrong, Josie Wallinger, Gwen Fry, and the 13-14 boys of Adam Janicki, Ian Fry, and Tate Ward. The Dolphins however would be outscored 44-46 making the score now LG 89-VW91.
It was now time for our breaststrokers to try their luck in the water. Although we had some very good swims during this stretch,VW was just too strong in this event and outscored the dolphins 51-39 making the score LG 128 - VW 143. As the fly events started the Dolphins knew they need to rise to the challenge if they were going to get back into the meet, and the 8 and unders would start that trend as they outscored the VW swimmers 17-1 with the girls of Lauren Armstrong, Genevieve Wilson and Maddie McDonnell sweeping the event. The Dolphins would win 8 out of the 10 fly events outscoring VW 52-38.
It was now time for a little break as the relays got ready to swim their races. The Dolphins would end up winning 7 of the 12 relays and in the last race of the day Elena Summers would hold off the VW swimmer by 0.18 to finish in first place. Additionally Miller Surette would come back in the boys Mixed age relay to finish first in his last race for the Dolphins. The Dolphins finished with 82 personal bests for this meet. It was now time to head back to our place for lunch and a game of sharks and minnows.
On Monday June 27 the rain held off so that the Dolphins could host a meet with the HIPPOS from High Point. As the night ran on I think it was the only time that I was hoping for thunder or something from the heavens. We started the meet giving all the swimmers the opportunity to swim an IM. Probably not a wise choice, but it all worked out. We got some excellent swims throughout the evening. Lots of swimmers dropped times throughout the evening and our turns are starting to look better. The swimmers from both teams followed their last swims with an ice cream social upstairs in the clubhouse.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

As we begin to prepare for our first meets of the season, Saturday at Vienna Woods, and Monday with High Point. We were very lucky with the first few weeks of practice with the weather, and only had one day with storms, but we're lucky to have the upstairs for dry-land.
The coaches thank all of the dolphins for showing up at practice. We know everyone has been busy with end of school, exams and the end of spring sports. We would like to congratulate all of the dolphins who graduated in the last few days starting with the kindengardners, 6 th graders, 8th graders and lastly the high schoolers.
The time trails went great except for our starter problems which have been fixed but than you all know me and technology. Stop laughing Cecila. We got a lot of good swims in as we turned our thoughts on remembering how to race. Yes there is a difference!!!
The meet on Monday with SHBR seem to run smoothly and I am sure for some of you York swimmers it was nice to see Coach Doug, who goes back a long time with me.
I have the list of DQ'S from both meet so if you were DQ and haven't talk to a coach about please see one of us. You are your best coach but you can't fix the mistake until you know what you did wrong. The next step is to go back to practice and when we are working on that stroke FOCUS IN ON WHAT YOU DID WRONG AND FIX IT. The coaches can help you but you need to want to fix it.
The silly DQ'S that should be easy to fix are, backstroke, not staying on your back at the finish, and gliding in on your turns, or taking more than one stroke.
Some silly breast ones are one hand touches on wall, more than one pull and kicks underwater. Some others were scissors and flutter kicks. The fly ones were one hand touches, flutter kicks. On both breast and fly we had a few of you start out wit freestyle ....and you guessed it that would be a big DQ.
All in all we worked some of that out from Saturday to Monday and spent most of this week working on the walls for breast and fly.
The enthusiasm and sportsmanship was nice to see from all of you but we do need to go over a few things
COACHES TOP TEN

STAY IN THE TEAM AREA!

SEE A COACH AFTER YOU SWIM!

Parents-unless you are planning to swim please stay out of team area!

STAY IN THE POOL UNTIL EVERYONE FINISHES. LOOK AROUND. SHAKE HANDS WITH THE OTHER TEAM!

CHEER-CHEER FOR YOUR TEAMMATES.

WEAR ONLY LEE GRAHAM SHIRTS AND CAPS! LOOK LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING EVEN IF YOU DON!T IT WILL GO A LONG WAY

STAY HYDRATED DURING THE MEET SO YOU ARE ABLE TO CARRY THE ENERGY ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

GET INVOLVED WITH THE TEAM. YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER THE RACES AS MUCH AS THE FRIENDSHIPS AND FUNNY THINGS THAT HAPPEN!

ALWAYS CONGRULATE THE OTHER TEAMS EVEN IF THEY WALK BY OUR TEAM AREA. THEY ARE THERE TO HAVE FUN ALSO. WE NEVER HAVE FUN AT THE OTHER TEAMS EXPENSE

ALWAYS LEAVE THE TEAM AREA LIKE YOU FOUND IT. CLEAN UP AND DON'T LEAVE EARLY

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Week one found the dolphins fighting a tsuanmi down in Alexandria, and week two found the Dolphins caught in a Riptide courtesy of Virginia Run, not to mention the cold and steady rain throughout the morning. After great support from our dolphin parents we made adjustments and the meet went off without a hitch, well, almost.

Here are some shots as we muddle through a warm-up in the rain

A first for the Dolphins was sharing the upstairs with the swimmers from Virginia Run in a effort to try and keep both teams warm and dry between events. Needless to say things got a little tight and cozy but you all were great all morning.

Of course our theme was Disney characters and you guys looked awesome and the singing from the deck was off the charts! Here are some images that were caught!

We got the meet started on time and unlike last week the dolphins struck first with our 8 and unders outscoring the Riptide swimmers in free 13 to 8. Again the dolphins would not look back although we seem to be stuck in that riptide and not able to get out (more later on). The dolphins would outscore the riptide in each stroke, free 57-33, back 49-41, breast 46-44, and fly 49-41. As you see the meet was pretty even and competitive between the two teams after free.

A lighter moment took place in the backstroke events. In the 13-14 girls Rebekah Ayre was swimming her backstroke fighting for a place after the turn. In my Wise judgement I decided to see if I could get her moving a bit faster by waving and yelling GO!. Without missing a beat and while swimming she yells back "I'm going". Only Rebekah could have pulled that off. We should have had a camera on her all day because what ever world she was in, she was having a good time.

After the 40 indiviual events the Dolphins captured 24 first place finishes, swam to 22 second place finishes and scored 15 third place finishes. Any of you who think 3rd places don't matter, they do. You capture the first places finishes that you are EXPECTED to WIN and the second and thirds put you over the top. You cannot win a meet without all three, unless you take all first, but you still find yourself 11 points short before the relays. This brings us to my next point, our best time percentage was way down (26%) and I am looking for more of around 55-60% at this time in the season. We were so low that I will take the blame so I told the coaches

we should donate our pay for the week. I had their attention now as I heard "you can't do that" or "I have rent." Now I did say we should, but another meet like that and I will be angry and you won't like it when I'm angry. I turn all green and it's not L.G. green it's more like the Hulk green with red eyes.

That being said I know best times will not always happen, but to be 2-5 seconds away tells me you were caught in that riptide couldn't get out. When that happens bad things occur, like giving up points. Like in baseball when that picther serves it up right down the middle and it gets jacked for a homerun. We lost, according to my math, about 15 points due to times being way off. Like I say to my swimmers in the winter you better hold your seed time or be near it or you will get beat. Just because your time is faster dosen't mean the race is yours. YOU CANNOT PUT A NUMBER ON WHAT IS IN THE HEART.

Our 8 and unders only had 3 best times out of 24 swims, and one of our relays DQ twice. Watch those starts and block out all the noise. Our 9-10 year olds had 5 out of 24 but again we had a relay DQ. Those 2 relays are a 20 point swing, not good. Our 11-12 year olds went 9 for 24 which is getting nearer to our goal of 55%. Our 13-14 year olds went 8 for 23 and our 15 and overs were 6 for 24. So out of 119 individual swims we had 31 best times. I would like to see 60 to 70.

SWEEPS FOR THE MEET 11-12 boys free Ian, Nate, and William C. 9-10 boys fly, Matthew, Johnathan, and Eddie H. The Rip Tide also had 2 sweeps so they cancelled each other out. Always fihgt to break up that sweep.

Milkshakes for the first 2 weeks will be on Monday and no you are not getting the cookies also.

DONALDSON RUN MEET TID BITS

We had a good turnout for the Monday Meet, and a special thanks to all the parents from Lee Graham. We know it was long but thanks for hanging in with us. LEE GRAHAM PARENTS ROCK!

We started with the IM'S AND FOR EARLY IN THE SEASON YOU ALL LOOKED TERRIFIC! In our individual events our 8 and unders posted 19 best times, 9-10 year olds had 15, 11-12 year olds had 16 personal best and our 13 and overs posted 8 best times.

We had 20 DQ's which I will not post but I do have the list so parents and swimmwers please ask. We try to get to the swimmers at the meet if we see something that is obvious, but we do miss some. Also there are a few this past Monday that were not DQ's and the referee overturned them. Some fairly easy ones to fix are false starts-2 walking on bottom before touching-3, swimming backstroke and turning over at finish-3, 1 hand touches-3. these are the ones that really should not happen as we move forward. The other ones are mostly breast stroke for flutter kick, feet turned in, or hands pulling passed hips. Parents I will be happy to show you what the dq means if your not sure of the rule. Please ask!

On another note we have spent the entire week working on breast stroke and while we weren't totally there today, the improvment is starting to show as the muscle memory starts to kick in. We will keep working on this next week!

Sunday the sun came out to dry the area so we could have a night of lazor tag at the pool! Thanks to the parents who stayed until 11:30 so that we could play. Rumor also has it that the little dolphins beat the older kids team several times. True to form the older kids complained it was eaiser for the little ones to hide!

Thanks to the older kids for making the posters to hang for swimmers last Saturday.

Other images from the week:

LET'S HOPE FOR SUN FOR FUN FRIDAY AND THEN LET'S TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS AT PINECREST